While the Rising Pune Supergiant squad was doing a thank-you lap after playing its last home game, the Kings XI Punjab team director Virender Sehwag was holding nothing back in expressing his disappointment at the overseas batsmen. Sehwag was especially disheartened by the lack of application by the Kings XI captain Glenn Maxwell.
“When you lose a batsman of that (Hashim Amla's) calibre, it's necessary for someone to step in and bat with responsibility. But it did not happen that way,” Sehwag said after Kings XI bowed out of the IPL having been bundled out for its lowest total ever in IPL. “We always knew that when Maxwell fires, he can win the match on his own. But he didn't fire in most games. That is a big disappointment, especially since he's experienced, having played for Australia's Test and ODI teams. He didn't take the responsibility as a captain and didn't perform for Kings XI Punjab.”
Sehwag did not spare the other three overseas batsmen that Kings XI Punjab fielded for what was a must-win match for them to qualify for the play-offs. “I'm very disappointed. I can say that none of the foreign players took responsibility. Their role was, at least one of the top four should bat for 12-15 overs but none of the batsmen took the responsibility,” Sehwag said.
“I think they were complaining that the wicket was a bit slow but when you play international cricket so much, you should get used to playing on difficult or good wickets. There are very rare occasions when you get a good wicket to bat on but whatever wicket you get, you have to play at least 20 overs for your side. But [Glenn] Maxwell, Shaun Marsh, [Martin] Guptill and [Eoin] Morgan [were all disappointing]. Guptill and Morgan, they were the senior-most, experienced players. But none of them batted at least 12 to 15 overs.”
Sehwag stated that the season was better than the previous two outings for the Kings XI Punjab but stressed that the incosistency did the team in. “I think this has been a better season in comparison to the last few seasons where we had been at the bottom of the table. I think had our batsmen been a bit more consistent, we would have been in the play-offs,” he said.
“But I think they’ll end up playing as much cricket as is their mentality. Perhaps they feel the T20 format is only for the entertainment bit and about the fours and sixes… The wicket wasn’t that bad that we skittled to just 73 runs... Our batsmen have been extremely irresponsible today.”
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